Saturday in Asir

On Saturday, my plan was to take all day to reach Abha airport while birding on the way. This proved to be a mistake because the weather turned from cloudy in Muhayil to rainy en route and finally very foggy in Abha itself.

Instead I should have headed towards the coast and then travelled back to Abha directly without stopping. I won't make a mistake like this again when I see a poor forecast for Abha.

So for example on the way up the hills towards Abha in the rain I saw only a few birds such as Tristram's starling and Arabian wheatear.

female Arabian wheatear

The female Arabian wheatear above shows just how wet it was.

male Arabian wheatear

Whereas a near-by male seemed to have kept dry.

Yet the day had started out well. I had two hours birding in south side of Wadi Muhayil (a little bit further south than on Friday ) before we set out on the journey. Although it was cloudy and affecting the light, some useful birds were seen.

Masked shrike

I had been looking for black crowned tchagra a.k.a black crowned bush-shrike which remains a target bird for my Saudi list. While failed to find it I did find three other types of shrike. I chased one shrike through some undergrowth to find it was a masked shrike. This is a more common wintering bird in south west Saudi Arabia than the guidebooks suggest (they say it is rare).  Indeed in the mild winter of 2011-12, I saw two winter as far north as Riyadh. 

woodchat shrike

Much more surprising was a woodchat shrike. The main regional guide says it occasionally winters in Arabia. The was the first wintering bird I have seen in Saudi Arabia.

Daurian shrike

In contrast, several Daurian shrike were observed over the weekend. 

helmeted guineafowl

One of the most intriguing sights was a helmeted guineafowl.  It is known to be common only near Wadi Jewa on the Yemen border but another observer has also reported seeing it west of Abha.

Pers Bertilsson reported " Close to Sahar Al Azem, in a valley W of Abha, I 
found four individuals, of unknown origin on 30 August 2001. They appeared to be wild, by not allowing me to approach them, but it can not be ruled out that they were of captive origin."    

I can't find Sahar al Azem on any map but it cant be far from Muhayil and the two sightings taken together is evidence that there may be another population of helmeted guineafowl in Saudi Arabia. 

Nile valley sunbird on the south side of wadi Muhayil

After I had some more exploration of the south side of Wadi Muhayil, my host and friend Shane Ngahere and I set off for Abha with local Saudi, Hassan.

Black kite

We didn't get far before I noticed a black kite in the air. Near-by were several ravens and a few more black kite. They were presumably attracted to some sort of waste dump but we couldn't see one. There were fan-tailed raven and brown-necked raven in equal numbers.

Fan-tailed raven

I always think fan-tailed raven ought to be named no-tailed raven.

Brown-necked raven

After this early stop on the journey we pressed on taking the old road to Abha. 

Steppe buzzard

We stopped again briefing in a lowland area to inspect a bird of prey on a tree which turned out to be a steppe buzzard. A white-browed coucal was seen from the car perched on top of a tree.

As we rose up the hills, the weather turned worse and apart from the Tristram's starling and the Arabian wheatear already mentioned, we didn't spot any other birds.  

baboons

Another sign that the south west of Saudi Arabia is in the Afro-tropical eco-zone is the presence of Hamadryas baboons otherwise found in East Africa.

white spectacled bulbul in the fog

When I arrived in Abha it was shrouded in thick fog. My birding was very restricted.  At a local park I spent a long time regretting not staying down in the plains and seeing only house sparrow, white spectacled bulbul and Abyssinian white eye. All three are typical parkland birds in the south west.

Abyssinian white eye in the fog

At least the white eye was interesting.

Despite the ending to my weekend, I was very satisfied to add to my Saudi list and see south western birds again.

I am very grateful to Shane Ngahere for hosting me and look forward to visiting Muhayil again.

I will be going to the east coast tomorrow for a totally different type of birding.

Here is the list of species seen near Muhayil over the weekend.

	Muhayil north	Muhayil south	Wadi Haly	Abha road	Abha
Sand partridge			x
Helmeted guineafowl		x
Hamerkop			x
Cattle egret			x
Squacco heron			x
Little egret			x
Grey heron			x
Black kite		x		x
Eurasian sparrowhawk		x
Steppe buzzard				x
Long legged buzzard		x
Kestrel	x
Little ringed plover			x
Green sandpiper		x	x
Wood sandpiper			x
Common sandpiper			x
Temminck’s stint			x
Feral pigeon	x	x
African collared dove	x	x	x	x
Laughing dove	x	x
Namaqua dove			x
White-browed coucal	x	x		x
Little green bee-eater	x		x
Woodchat shrike		x
Masked shrike		x
Daurian shrike	x	x	x
Arabian babbler	x	x
Brown necked raven	x			x
Fan tailed raven	x			x
White spectacled bulbul	x	x	x		x
Black-crowned sparrow- lark		x
Crested lark				x
Desert lark			x
Pale crag martin	x
Graceful prinia	x
Abyssinian white eye					x
Tristram’s starling				x
Black bush-robin	x	x
Siberian stonechat	x
Isabelline wheatear		x
Blackstart	x	x
Arabian wheatear				x
Nile valley sunbird	x	x
Shining sunbird	x	x	x
House sparrow		x			x
Ruepells weaver	x	x		x
African silverbill	x	x
White wagtail		x	x
Citrine wagtail			x
Striolated bunting			x
Cinnamon-breasted bunting			x